


The Scent of Apples

by kichihoshi



Category: Twisted-Wonderland (Video Game)
Genre: Idia and Malleus are best friends, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, slightly nsfw, yoshiwara au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-16
Updated: 2020-04-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:41:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23684830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kichihoshi/pseuds/kichihoshi
Summary: There is a scent that seems to intrude upon Idia's peace. Perhaps he'll find where it's coming from.
Relationships: Lilia Vanrouge/Malleus Draconia, Vil Schoenheit/Idia Shroud
Comments: 10
Kudos: 39





	The Scent of Apples

* * *

The room smells of apples.

The familiarity sets my nostrils in a scrunch, as if some sort of unwanted memory would knock on my consciousness if I've inhaled of it.

Somewhere, in the back of my mind, there is a creeping thought, I know, of someone who used to remind me of apples.

That was in some distant past.

But why is the past so powerful? Maybe, for someone such as I, what's powerful isn't exactly the past itself, but my commitment to my own memories.

A double edged sword, this persistence of pursuing old things is. It is both at once the cloud on which I take comforts in upon my sleep, yet it also the storm that brings me nightmares and torments me in my slumber.

And I have yet to judge what this event brings upon me.

"I’ve arranged the best for you," Malleus whispers in my ear, too loud for it to be a whisper, in truth.

He had downed a bag of wine on the way here. "Steeling his nerves" was the excuse he could come up with. He seemed to be quite friendly with the owner. In such a drunken state, he would've been driven away.

_Ah, right._ He also paid quite a lot of silver.

"The best, I tell you!" He knocks over the table in fits of hiccups.

"Just wait, Malleus, I---"

"Ah, _darling_."

A figure appears by the archway.

His voice is husky, but sweet. He elegantly throws a handful of his robes aside so he could make his way to us.

He walks quietly, without even the sound of footsteps. I almost thought he could've been floating, if not for the rustle of the fabric across the floor.

"Dear me, has he had too much to drink?"

The man yanks Malleus’ chin up with a fan.

He is alluring, hair as dark as the night, rendering his features unmistakably divine. Something about him exudes peppermint. Bold, mischievous, sharp, yet like peppermint, there is a secret sweetness hidden in plain sight. Something soothing, something gentle, something Malleus would indeed like.

"You started without me." The man tuts, pulling his fan away to let my best friend’s head fall, only to playfully slap his cheek with it the next.

"Lilia." Malleus giggles.

"Silly, silly. I told you not to drink without me." He pouts. "Now, look, you even made an inconvenience of---

The man named Lilia pauses to look at me.

"Uhm, Idia." "Ah, Idia."

Malleus reaches for him, falling out of my grasp that he lands on the floor with a thud.

"I'll take care of him." "But--" "Don't worry. As long as he paid, he'll be in good hands."

Two other men came from out of nowhere and grabbed him off the floor. Before I know it, they were already dragging him someplace else, and I hold onto my clothes, somewhat worried.

"You seem confused. Is it your first time?"

A nod was all I can manage.

"Oh, that's delightful. First times here are always… _special_." "So they say.""You're having doubts though?"

"I'm just not used to it… _This_ …"

"That's why we have first times, love. So you can."

I find myself separated from the perpetrator of this event--my best friend.

The room echoes back a sigh I release. By some sort of wicked betrayal, I find myself too small for my own clothes, as if the anticipation of my first time has shrunken me into an innocent child.

Far from that, I'm neither innocent, nor am I a child. Perhaps it was also that I was envious of my best friend's midnight trysts that I find myself agreeing to this sort of activity.

Whatever happened to feelings and romance?

I believed it was something I could wait on.

Malleus’ paramour, perhaps the elegant man called Lilia, seems to be giving him just as much. Otherwise, if the promise of intimacy in this place was such a far-fetched idea for me, I wouldn't even consider it.

Could fate be also as kind to give me that privilege?

Malleus calls what he and Lilia have, something special.

"It's out of the rule book." He would say. "They have a rule book?"

"It's a strict code. But Lilia makes an exception. Just for me." "For how long, though?"

For that question alone, I lost ten pieces of _shunga_ I hoped to collect.

"Malleus, you lucky bastard."

I usually indulge myself in silence, but the stillness of the room was starting to suffocate me.

Perhaps it was a sign that I should flee. Nothing good will come of my surrendering to my own carnal desires. I should go back to my room and study, and read through Malleus’ collection of old-fashioned erotica when I get the urge.

That was safer. _Safe is good._

I still cater to my thoughts when the door opened, and the room instantly smells of _apples._

_Apples_.

My mind is prompted to swirl years back, an automatic response I've paired my memory to, but the unseen travel to memory lane is put to a halt the moment someone enters the room.

The figure slithers forward without a sound, until it stops at the edge of the bed.

"Good evening." He bows elegantly. "My name is Vil."

"Vil."

"Ah--"

The letters of his name roll against my tongue like slow dripping honey. It is only made up of three letters, yet there is a lingering taste long after it left my mouth.

But why? Why did I feel the need to say his name out loud?

"That was improper, I apologize." I bow in return. "Not at all." Something on his face glimmers in the dark, and I could only guess the ghost of a smile. "Shall we begin?"

My throat suddenly feels dry, and I could only muster a raspy, "Yes."

"I heard it's your first time here." Vil chuckles in amusement, moving to light the candles on the bedside table.

The candle burns brightly, revealing this man’s profile.

_Oh, he's lovely._ But it only gives me a second to admire his face before he moves away.

"Not just… here." I admit. "It's my first time… _ever_ … I mean."

Vil looks at me making an inaudible 'Oh' with his lips, his eyelashes battling as softly as moth wings.

"Lilia seemed to have forgotten to mention that part, hmm… perhaps I'll have to make _other_ arrangements."

"What did he say?" I grip the sheets in attempts to quell the storm building up in my stomach.

"I've only been told to--" He leans over, hand resting on the rumpled sheets between my legs.

I lean back to avoid meeting his face, yet he continues to let himself fall towards me.

*I've only been told to--* "- _-make you feel good_."

All of a sudden, I feel something warm dig inside my robes.

"What…"

I feel his hands run along my thigh.

"How soft you are." He whispers, groaning as he nibbles on my ear with no warning.

The sensation fills my head with clouds.

_He's just touching me... Is it really this easy to feel so good?_

"Shall we begin?"

"Wait---"

I push him away. He doesn't seem to be surprised, almost as if he planned it.

"I---" I pause, breathless as the minute encounter with Vil almost stripped me of all thought.

_Terrifying._ This is absolutely _pleasurably terrifying._

I grip my clothes tighter, making sure I wasn't undressed, and hurriedly scrambled off the bed.

"I have to go!" I say, bowing as I run out the door.

I close my eyes shut, shaking off the arousal that came over me for that short while.

I'm not sure if Vil has been surprised by my sudden refusal, and I sure as hell have no idea what will happen next.

"Where's Malleus?" I mutter to myself, still keeping my hands on the knots I made with the laces of my robes, determined not let any fabric fall from my body.

Without a trace of my best friend, I opened the front door and found myself outside the establishment.

My heart still runs like a thousand horses galloping across my chest. I catch my breath, but I am once again held captive by the thought of a handsome young man, his face shrouded in a delightful mystery I have chosen not to discover.

I grunt, letting my fingers find what they were looking for beneath my robes.

Here, in this empty garden, with only the darkness to witness such an act I never believed I could ever live with doing, I succumb to the pleasure ignited inside me by the scent of apples.

Several days after avoiding Malleus, he caught me feeding the fish near the gazebo. For certain, I was sure he would make fun of me, if he ever heard from that house. But instead, I found him bowing fervently after offering his apologies.

"Dear Idia, I'm terribly sorry." "It's fine, nothing happened." I sighed.

"That sounded a bit like regret." He snickers, and I almost smacked him with the book I was holding.

"Maybe I am regretting it." I think back to that night I was supposed to make love with a stranger.

"Maybe you're not ready yet." Malleus tries to console me. "Don't push yourself." "I know I'm ready. If I wasn't, I would have never come with you, no matter how much you would've forced me. You know that.”

Malleus just nods his head in agreement, humming a low tune.

"There was just _something_ about him..."

That, I try to say to myself. If Malleus ever heard me he would ask me why.

I would be lying if I say I haven't thought of Vil. I find myself thinking what could've happened that night had I not fled, and the sensation comes creeping into my skin again, searing me from the inside. I would lie awake at night, feeling the heat overflow on my hands.

That's when the loneliness sinks in, realizing that I have left out building meaningful relationships in favor of scholastic success. I don't regret, no. I enjoy what I do, and I am more privileged than others in that respect. But I find myself thinking that sometimes. It would have been nice to have someone too.

In truth, I've had someone close to that before. Someone who smells of apples. Someone who smells like Vil.

Malleus hands me the manuscript he corrected, sighing as though what I had given him was too desperate to even count as a heartbreaking poem. He sees it as more of a personal tragedy.

"Idia, you're just horribly sad." He comments. Honestly, if he had teared up a little, I would have believed him, so instead, I pick up my brush and write some more.

He inhales sharply, pitying this sorry excuse of a hopeless romantic.

"Tell you what, why don't you investigate this place for tax evasion." Malleus slips me a letter. "Walking would do you some good."

And so I find myself walking down the merchants' village. It's not entirely out of my job description to remind business owners of their duties to the crown, but it is a tedious task I would like to avoid as much as I can. Traders are a handful to deal with, and I am not exactly the right person to negotiate terms.

"You're not Mr. Vanrouge." I can hear the overbearing voice from a distance. "He and I have a deal, and I will be speaking to no one but him!"

"I'm telling you, Mr. Vanrouge sent---"

"Out! Out with you!" The merchant pushes the tall man away, unexpectedly hard enough that he is thrown off balance.

Before I could make sense of anything, my feet spring into action, and I find myself rushing to break the stranger’s fall.

His backside crashes into my chest, and I am all at once stunned.

All because the scent of his hair made it into my nostrils and it is something I’ve known so well. Like a broken record, it intrudes upon me, and perhaps it has been said so many times, but what is there to do?

I’m left with nothing but to hold onto the truth.

"You again! I told you never you come here."

The shouting breaks my thoughts. The merchant flares, giving me a stern look. "Why must the gods forsake me so? Two devils have appeared at my doorstep!"

“Wait, the council--”

He shuts the door.

I have no idea what the man was saying, but if he meant me a devil, then he is clearly much more of a heathen than I will ever be. I mentally list the offences he's made: tax evasion, no business registration, and disrespecting a government official.

“Goodness.” The tall young man, inhales sharply, pulling away from my hold. “That man’s not worth the trouble, seriously.”

“Are you alright?”

“Yes, thank you.” He says, back turned on me as he busies himself with arranging his wrinkled robes.

Defeated, I find it too tedious to bang the door again, only to be met with such hostility. So, I decide to go back to the council office.

But as I turn halfway, I catch sight of the stranger, albeit briefly, that I am compelled to take another look.

My heart rings like a bell, crystal clear.

I should take it as a warning, somewhat, akin to that of an impending calamity that is almost ready to ravage my unsuspecting heart.

_But how..._

I shake my hands, wringing out the tension in them.

How can someone who smells like home, like tranquility, put me on the edge?

"Why," He catches me staring. "If it isn't Minister Shroud. What a surprise."

Vil, from the midnight house reveals a smile I never thought I'd see again.


End file.
